Ringing in the Cambodian Rice Season
Plus: the Mother's Day gift box special is back, traditional masks in Mali, and what is Russian food anyway?
Rice Planting: A Royal Affair
On Friday, Cambodia and other parts of Southeast Asia observe a special ceremony starting the official planting season. The Royal Ploughing Ceremony in Cambodia is held at the royal palace and the king and queen (or their representatives) head this ancient tradition by leading two oxen around a small plot on the palace grounds. The kind guides the oxen three times around the plot while the queen drops seeds behind them signifying the start of the wet season and Cambodia’s main crop-growing period.
But this ceremony is much more than royalty leading animals in circles—the most significant ritual comes after the ceremonial tilling when the auspicious oxen are presented with seven golden trays laden with rice, corn, soybeans, grass, sesame seeds, rice wine and water. Whatever the oxen are drawn to and whatever they ignore predicts what the coming harvest season will produce. Brahmin priests calculate these predictions based on the level of interest each ox shows in each item. For example, if they eat a large quantity of rice but a smaller quantity of beans and corn, farmers can expect a good rice crop and moderate outputs of beans and corn. Choosing water signifies heavy rainfall and possible flooding, eating the grass can mean animal disease will spread, and choosing rice wine can mean there will be a surge in crime (as the country will be overrun with drunks).
Most Cambodian farmers consult specialized agricultural sources (their version of the Farmers Almanac, etc.) before making big planting decisions, but the Royal Ploughing Ceremony is still held in high regard and the predictions are eagerly awaited each year. The ritual goes back thousands of years (the first mention of it in literature comes from ancient Indian historical texts dating back to the 7th century BCE) and is a huge cultural and spiritual element in Cambodian agricultural life. As a festival, it’s definitely one of the most unique events to observe for visitors, and you can probably find festival food like anksom jayk, a combo of sweet rice, black beans and banana wrapped in banana leaves and boiled for several hours. I try my hand at making the recipe tomorrow for Thursday Dish, so check it out on Instagram. Grab the recipe from Mom’s Cambodian Recipes vlog below.
The Mother’s Day Gift Box Special is Back!
Why is sending a photographer to your home to capture you cooking together and compiling a custom cookbook a great Mother’s Day gift?
I’ll just let one of the recipients of a cookbook experience last Mother’s Day tell you what food means to her via a note she wrote at the front of her book.
“I cook because I want my family to have a good meal and to share my cooking with family and friends. Love and care goes into every dish sometimes not resulting in the best dish but always with good intentions and always with the hope of enjoyment. Sometimes the dish is not successful but the togetherness and sharing a meal is the success. That is what makes me happy and hopefully it is what makes family and friends sharing my food feels.”
Lives are busy and this past year has been rough on a lot of families. If you and your family connect over food, this is an excellent way to showcase that. Even if you don’t cook but your mom or grandma shows their love through food, a custom cookbook experience 1) brings everyone together to create memories through quality time (which is what they really want, honestly), and 2) honors their work and tradition through a timeless experience and beautiful heirloom.
Order a gift box by next Wednesday and you’ll receive a free bonus copy of your custom cookbook with your package. You have exactly one week left to order a Family Cookbook gift box for Mother’s Day.
A few answers to questions I get asked about gift boxes:
A gift box represents the cookbook package. It contains a Family Cookbook Session Guide so your mom/grandma/family can learn about the process, plus a few select goods from the PNW.
You have an entire year to schedule your photo session. Vaccines are rolling out but many families won’t be able to gather together for another little while. I totally understand and am flexible on your session booking date.
Boxes cost $250 and that dollar amount is a retainer on your package. Once you book your photo session, the $250 is credited toward your package amount. The gift box retainer is nonrefundable.
Read more about gift boxes and get the Family Cookbook information guide for event more details via the button below. Or honestly you can just reply to this email.
Cookbook of the Month
Kachka
I’m going to be honest: I haven’t exactly been on the ball lately. Between cranking out photo sessions in Utah last week (8 sessions in 4 days is a lot and I’m tired), flying on a plane for the first time in over a year, plus getting my second vaccine and not moving from the couch for hours, when my self-appointed deadline for this newsletter was imminent, I realized I hadn’t done much research for this month’s featured cookbook.
Local Portland chef Bonnie Frumkin Morales to the rescue: Her Russian restaurant Kachka has been winning hearts and minds for years, and her gorgeous cookbook sprung to mind. Co-written with local food journalist Deena Prichep (who is featured on my website making round challah with her adorable family), this colorful and interesting exploration of Russian and Soviet cooking starts with two statements: “What is Russian food, anyways?” and “This is not a Russian cookbook.”
Bonnie dives into the massive rabbit hole that is Soviet cuisine, which goes far beyond cabbage and beets to pomegranates and saffron and smoked fish. Detailing her mother’s recipes as well as her own inventions intertwined with her family’s stories stories of hardship, resilience and success, this book is a riveting story as well as a food journey. It features a fold out map of the former Soviet Union, a guide to Russian markets, a few key Russian phrases, a whole section on vodka infusions and so much more. This book is definitely one of my favorites to flip through for off-the-beaten-path meals and kitchen inspiration.
Cooking on Instagram
Last week, I made these pillowy bretzels from Luxembourg-based food blogger Anne’s Kitchen. They came out surprisingly well, and substituting Bob’s Red Mill egg replacer for the egg in the almond paste worked perfectly. These bretzels were for Oktav, Luxembourg’s biggest religious festival, which gathers 90,000 people mostly drawn to the huge market outside the Luxembourg City cathedral. Originally a Jesuit pilgrimage honoring Mary as Comforter of the Afflicted with a procession through the city, the event started in the 1620s as an effort to attract more people to Catholicism during the 30 Years War and a ravaging plague that killed upwards of 2/3rds of Luxembourg’s population. You can check out more about this story in my Instagram highlights until tomorrow, when I’ll be replacing it with the story below, but you can grab the fabulous bretzels recipe here.
Tomorrow for Thursday Dish I’m making this maafe recipe from African Bites and talking about the Dama mask rituals of Mali’s Dogon communities. The Dogon people have a long, deep tradition of mask making for death ceremonies, with 60 masks representing the worlds of the living and the dead. Men wear various masks depending on the symbolism and dance during the Dama ritual—only men wear masks and dance as women are associated with life and fertility and are not allowed to touch the masks.
Like many traditions in Indigenous African communities, the changing world has influenced the way these ceremonies are performed in Dogon villages. They are still mostly for private rituals, but since the 1960s, tourists have had a major impact—some villages now perform a mask ceremony for tourists for a fee, removing the cultural and spiritual context, and masks have been stolen from burial caves for reselling the Western and Asian art markets. There is now a Dogon Mask Festival every year in Mali to celebrate this special tradition, and I’ll dive into that more tomorrow.
Preserve Your Family Food Traditions
Whether you have a strong family food heritage or are major foodies, learn more about the custom cookbook process by grabbing The Family Cookbook Info Guide.